Standing Guard

En Garde! This weekend's WSJ and T magazines go head to head, cover to cover, headline to headline. Take that! No, you take that!
Pure Elegance all in white v. True Elegance in black. Young Russian model Kati Nescher v. Lee Radziwill.

Coincidence, you say? Hah! My guess is that both WSJ's new-ish editor Kristina O'Neill and savvy T chief Deborah Needleman have their spies. Who's the aggressor? Not clear, but this competition could get very interesting.

Old Guard: My inbox was filled with messages regarding Time Warner's apparent interest in finally spinning off Time Inc. in a deal with Iowa-based Meredith. All reports noted that TW namesake Time, Fortune, and SI would be exempt from the deal, with various lame reasons given for that move.

WLGD4U

The real reason: TW head Jeff Bewkes is an HBO grad and has never  been enamored of the magazine unit. But, even he does not want to be the one to raise a royal media stink by letting Rupert Murdock get his mitts on political weekly Time, business bible Fortune, or swimsuit cash cow SI. Another possibility? Get the Right Guard out and convince Bloomberg to take on Time and Fortune. Could poor SI be tossed underwater to ESPN? That would be a fate worst than depth for them.

Laggard: While picking up my WSJ/Off Duty this morning, I overheard the patron in front of me ask the value of PowerBall. Upon hearing it was only $60 million, he scoffed and said he'd wait. I seem to live in an area where $60 mill isn't quite good enough. I bought two tickets and man would I like to be the laggard with one of the winning tickets instead of the toad who spurned it.

Fort Mason Market, SFO

Guarding the Fort: Spent last weekend in San Francisco (full report soon), where even Dumplings Get The Blues at the market in Fort Mason. Never saw a cloud in four days. I've given up comparing SFO to other cities, especially NYC. It's unique, and, although it drives many tried and true New Yorkers crazy with its Zen-like demeanor, it is the country's most dramatically beautiful city.